taking yourself as the starting point."
Some gnostics argued that God the Creator of both good and evil served a greater Divine, the "Depth." Others celebrated an Almighty who was both feminine and masculine ("She became the Mother of everything, for she existed before them all, the mother-father"). Still others argued that Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection should be taken symbolically, not as historical events.
Orthodox leaders viewed gnostic teachings as falsehoods;...